[MUSIC]
My name is Basil Hussain.
I'm a PhD Candidate in the School of Medicine,
in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics.
>> I'm Helena Zec.
I'm a Postdoc in Biomedical Engineering, the School of Medicine.
>> I'm Robert Hsiao, and
I'm a PhD Candidate in the Pharmacology department.
[MUSIC]
>> My story's semi-unique, I tried for two recruiting cycles.
So my first recruiting cycle, I interviewed at two firms and
clearly I didn't get through.
And to be honest, I hadn't put in the effort or the legwork,
it's sorta just something that I did.
And then the next time, I was quite dedicated to it.
I joined consulting club, got really involved,
really prepared, practiced cases.
And then the second time through, I felt really good, really confident.
I ended up getting five interviews and got two offers,
then I accepted an offer with Deloy in strategy in operations in Boston,
so that's where I'll be next year in October.
>> Yeah my story is very similar, I tried for about a year.
So I actually interviewed with maybe 15 different companies, and
got a lot of rejections along the way.
And recently, I took it a little bit more seriously,
like I joined the consulting club, became director of communications,
and really got to network with folks.
And get to know people,
like these people that are very experienced with consulting.
And got three offers in like, two weeks.
So, I think its just practice and perseverance.
>> Yes. [LAUGH]
>> Yeah, I think Basil and
Helena got pretty much all of it.
Mine's about the same experience too.
I think I applied last year to also about 15 to 20 firms,
including McKenzie, BCG and and some smaller firms as well.
And I think I got interviews from all of them, and
end up getting some offers from Boutique Life Sciences.
And then ended up getting McKenzie's offer, and once I
got McKenzie's offer I was like, that's the place I wanted to be in.
I went ahead and cancelled my other interviews.
[MUSIC]
>> I slightly negotiated.
[LAUGH] >> So
having multiple offers helps you.
If I only had one, I was just gonna take it and jump on it because,
I'm a Ph.D student and what value do I actually have.
Those are the things that go through your head.
But having another offer helped me leverage them so it would, sort of,
get some of the things that I wanted.
And I would encourage people not to be hesitant to negotiate
a little bit.
You have this fear in your head, they're gonna pull to offer.
And the truth is, you made it through all the interviews,
to the final round and chances are,
they were able to wiggle a little bit.
So, I would encourage people to do that not particularly scared by it.
>> I did try to negotiate.
>> [LAUGH] >> First,
I tried to get a higher salary and they just said,
we would never do that, so then I tried to negotiate my relocation.
I don't know if my story is unique, but
my recruiter just fell of the face of the earth.
[LAUGH] >> So
I just had to sign the offer letter, before she could get back to me.
So, I tried.
>> Well, my experience was actually a little different.
I think I've signed my contract maybe two days after I got the offer
letter?
And I actually didn't negotiate my offer in any way.
I think for numerous reasons, but mainly two reasons.
One is, the package itself was already pretty good.
So even if I negotiated let's say another, I won't say the amount.
But even if I negotiated it wouldn't make much of a difference.
And secondly to me the assets provided by the firm, the training
and everything else was more important than the money and stuff.
>> Yeah.
>> So that's why.
>> Yeah, I agree with that.
[MUSIC]
Sure you're probably got this earlier,
but I think everyone who comes here at Hopkins, do their PhD and
they think they're gonna be a scientist.
And I was in that boat as well.
And I will tell you, I would say year three or four,
after you've been in the lab long of enough, and
you sort of get a feel for what science is really about.
That's when I got the inkling that,
there are lots of things about science that I actually liked.
But there were things that I desired more.
And so I wanted to work on more structured projects
over a finite amount of time, and really have impact.
And so I wanted to see somewhere I could consolidate my PhD skills,
and the things that I wanted and
consulting something that I fell into, and it fit.
So that's my story.
>> Yeah, I would say the same thing.
I definitely came in to the PhD,
with every intention of becoming a scientist or becoming faculty.
But also after seeing just funding rates so
drastically decreased, and watching people do post-docs for
five or eight years, before they even got a faculty position.
I just kind of decided it wasn't for me, and
I wanted to look in other careers.
The one thing I love about science is that, you get to be creative and
very independent and set your own schedule.
But consulting is exciting, cuz you maybe can shape the industry or
really have a great start to the early in your career.
>> I actually, again it's a little bit different.
Cuz I actually applied to grad school and came into pharmacology
program, thinking that I'm going to industry right after graduation.
So, I wasn't really interested in
being a bench scientist as a career for my life, so.
I heard about consulting my first share but I really didn't make up my
mind until my third year, when I attended the case competition.
And actually, after attending a few case competitions and doing some pro
bono consulting projects, and actually recently an internship.
My motivation and dedication to becoming consult, and actually
become more and more strengthened throughout each experience.
And I think the fact that it's fast paced impact driven, challenging
by very rewarding type of work, those things are the things that
really attracted me to [INAUDIBLE] >> Can I say one more thing, and
I think they'll both agree with me.
Coming here, one of the reasons I came here is I wanted to work with
talented, driven, smart people.
And that's not something that I wanted to leave behind.
So I wanted a really intellectually stimulating environment, and I think
when you look at consulting firms, and the pedigrees that people have,
and caliber of person that is at these firms.
I'm very happy to be going to an intellectually stimulating
environment.
[MUSIC]
The Consulting Club here at Hopkins,
I would say is a very strong Consulting Club.
And I think,
one of the real advantages of joining a Consulting Club is,
the first decision you have to make is,
is it something you're actually interested in.
And so being part of the club gives you a lot of opportunities.
Whether it's information sessions from firms that recruit
here at Hopkins.
Or how to do interviews in case interview workshops.
Or pro-bono work that Robert actually mentioned.
It allows you to sort of dip your toe into the pool and
get a feel for, if you actually like it.
And once you make that decision, I think things become more clear.
Becomes a definitive path of preparing for interviews,
learning more about firms, and really honing their skills.
>> Yeah, I would agree with what Basil said.
I think when I started to become more involved with the consulting
club, I noticed a difference in how I was also interviewing at firms.
And just having networks with people also helped going into interviews.
>> Yeah, I think they they got the important point,
I think to emphasize even more I think the exploration part is very
important especially younger age students I think in their first,
second, and even third year they generally spend time in exploring
different career paths, before they decide which one is right for them.
Because it takes a long time for
most people to get one of these jobs.
And so, you have to really make sure that you're really interested and
motivated about this type of work,
before you dedicate yourself to preparing for it.
And I think we might cover some of the preparation steps after.
>> I also think that the thing that you did was,
you interned with a few companies which was really helpful.
>> Yeah, that definitely helped me decide.
[MUSIC]
>> One thing I would like to emphasis is,
when you're a scientist and you're thinking of alternative career path.
You're nervous, and apprehensive, and rightfully so
because you're doing something you've never actually done.
And I would say you're more valuable than you think you are, so
have confidence in yourself.
When I started thinking about this.
I was, like, am I gonna be valuable, why would they even hire me?
But the point is that these firms actually have dedicated recruiting
staffs, to recruiting PHDs.
So you are very valuable.
So keep that in mind.
And then beyond that I would say, you have to practice cases for
case interviews.
I think it's absolutely necessary to do that.
The good thing is it's a learnable skill, but it requires effort and
you have to really train yourself to do it.
>> And I also think adding to that to fit interviews are so important.
So, you can make a few mistakes on the case interview, but
if they don't like you.
They're not gonna hire you.
So just choosing the right stories and come across as a likable person,
someone that they'd like to hang out with in the airport.
It's always the airport test that they mention.
So you need to take that seriously.
>> Yeah, I think Basil and
Helena, covered the case interview and personal experience part.
And I think there is one part, I think more people can
help themselves do more and that's before getting in the interviews.
You can do that by case competitions, pro bono work,
but I think the main thing is networking.
But I would say, that networking also depends on which kind of firms
you're talking to.
So for McKenzie PCG and Band, they look at more on your experiences,
your resume, your cover letter, your stories and your personality.
Whereas for Boutique Life Sciences Firms,
they do tend to care more about whether they know you or not.
So I think you have to decide for yourself,
whether you wanna be a journalist or a Boutique Life Science consultant.
And then you go down each different pathway.
[MUSIC]
>> Unlike other jobs, consulting has sort of a unique interview process.
And so, initially the interview process,
there is a fit component that Helena mentions.
And so you can prepare for those questions,
they're typical questions.
Tell me about a time you worked on a team, or when you were a leader,
or when you had difficulty working with someone.
So those are you can study for those, and you definitely should.
But the unique part of consulting interviews is they all have
a case component.
And so case component actually is a real case the consulting firm
probably worked on, and so you're in there with an interviewer.
They provide you with data and you sort of go through
solving the problem, and come to a recommendation for the client.
And you do this in real time, there's mental math involved.
You're sort of thinking on your feet,
you're constantly being challenged.
And the truth is you have to prepare for that.
To think that you can sort of just walk in and
do it without preparation, would lead you to failure.
I'm confident in saying that.
[LAUGH] >> Yes.
>> Yeah, I would say don't get too bogged down in
memorizing all the frameworks.
Find a general one that works for you, and
that you can potentially apply to every situation.
Or at least that's what I did.
And then you can always tailor it to the problems that they're asking
you, but don't memorize 20 different frameworks, that just wouldn't work.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah.
To build on those two points,
I think, if I were to say,
the most important thing that helped me the most during my interviews is
remembering that consulting is a professional service.
And your dealing with people.
So, whether it's case interview segment or
the personal experience interview.
You're dealing with people and
you have to think of your interviewer as a client.
So, you want to show that you are capable of becoming a consultant,
you are a consultant already.
And you can show that by sharing your personal story or
by doing a case.
And so the fundamental skills are definitely need to be there, but
it's having that mindset, I think, that really helped me.
>> Yeah, to Roberts point, your interviewer will be your advocate.
After their done interviewing with you,
they're gonna say whether they want to work with you, or not.
So, I think Helena's point is really good.
They have to want to work with you.
Clearly, you have to do well on the case.
But there has to be some intangible,
you have to imagine they're interviewing 50 PhDs in one day.
So a lot of them will do well on the case of how do you sort of stick out
and I think a lot of that is fit, which is what these guys mentions,
so I agree with that.
[MUSIC]
So for activities that help I think we have a good spectrum of them.
We have all been involved with the consulting club, and
so I have been a part of that for a couple years, and
that's tremendously helped me prepare.
I also took a course at the school of business at Kerry,
to help prepare me for some of the business aspects of consulting, and
I think that was helpful.
And then I did these immersion programs,
for some of these firms over the summer.
They do little three day immersion programs at BCG and
Bain and Mackenzie and Clearview, and I did a couple of those.
And it sort of helps you stick out as an applicant, but
also it gives you a feel of what being a consultant is like.
So I thought those were really valuable.
>> Yeah, I think that things that I did, I also worked for a start up.
Which also gave me great stories to talk about in the interviews, and
then entering for
a venture capital firm, which again gave me great stories to talk about.
So those two experiences helped.
>> Yeah. I think,
I guess in my mind I kind of think of it as a pathway.
Unless you have previous business experiences.
I think most people are kinda starting from the ground zero, and
so you have to first, read information and
gain those knowledge.
And after that you can start maybe practicing
through case competitions, or just cases with friends.
and those are kind of the no risk environment,
where you can just learn more about business and consulting in general.
After that, I think for me, the real best experiences were the internship
and the pro bono projects that I did, and I think those are very
important in getting insights into how to deal with real world clients.
Yep, I think all of those would help.
>> Yeah, definitely.
[MUSIC]
>> Yeah, so- >> [LAUGH]
>> I'm scared because he's
doing something new and out of my comfort zone.
But I think that's part of the fun and I think it would be challenging
if I'm moving to a new place, moving to a new city.
But also I'm excited about,
thing about a PhD is you work on one problem for six years, and
you definitely become an experiment in the area.
But I'm excited to work on something for six weeks, and
then learn something new, and move on to something, and have a real
terminal point, and really deliver impact is what I'm excited about.
Yeah, I'm excited to work on different projects and
have a faster turn around time on projects, and
then working with people from different backgrounds.
>> And I'm sure it'll be a step learning curve, but
I'm really excited about that too.
>> Right, I very much echo their point.
I think for me, the most exciting thing to look forward to,
is the exposure that I would be getting.
To different industries, different functions within those industries,
and different people that I'll be working with.
I think having focused on very narrow projects in IPHC for
six years now, it would be a real chance [LAUGH] to be on that page,
and then work on challenging but impact driven projects.